When I was younger, my mom never accepted a serious boyfriend. Back then, I desired it that way. My brother and I obtained my mom all to ourselves, for about eight years. Until my mom encountered help from my stepdad, Kevin. At first, I did not appreciate him at all and I addressed him like he was crap. Although, a couple of months later we relized how much we had in common and we came together. We altered each other to be better people; He ceased his party boy life and I stepped down from being such a brat. When we heard he had stage four cancer, last year, it made me realize, how crappy I treated him from day one. I wish I had never addressed him with such negativity and I regret it now. He was such a good person and he deserved better. I shifted my thoughts from being mean to loving, and I would never shift my thoughts back to mean things. If I could, I would turn around and go back, I would utilize the knowledge, I know now, to experience the best time possible with him. Mothers touchYou’re supposed to love your mom. My whole life I despised mine. She would put me and my siblings in danger, and make us go through horrific things. She would bring home the most perverted men on the planet. She would get high in the kitchen with them on a daily basis. She made it to where I believed that school was the sheltered place for me in Elementary School. She made it to where I do not have credence to anyone. She made it were I have anxiety attacks on the regular. She made it so I moved to Denver. Since I can say I love her, for getting me out of the one place I called home. She may not have had those intentions but her decision to move me here changed my life. I would not be able to say I am graduating in May. I would still be in that life were school was your least priority. I thank my mom on a daily basis now. I never thought I would say this but my mom saved my life entirely. - Bella Kokos
I used to just say "whatever" to smoking but now with a personal experience I feel that smoking is a bad habit that should be taken care of. Five or six years ago my uncle passed away from cancer. Even though my uncle never smoke he was around people who smoked all the time he was told that he had lung cancer three years prior. Since having to go through this tragedy I have now changed my opinion and do believe that people shouldn’t smoke. There are many people that do die from things like smoking and it is hard to prevent it but there are ways. Going through things like this are hard and I do think that experiencing things like this helps you see that smoking, drinking, etc. are really harmful sometimes but there is nothing you can really do from stopping what has happened already.
Moving out of CO My feeling of move out of Colorado has changed since I was a freshman. I use to have a strong desire to move out of Colorado. I was born here and lived here my whole life. I have never really gone snowboarding or skiing up in the mountains because I hate the snow, it snows a lot here in Colorado. Snow makes everything wet and cold a feeling I dislike. I wanted to move somewhere warm like Florida or California. I have visited Florida many times and loved it. My family always traveled down to Florida in the winter time but never during the summer. When it is bitter cold here in Colorado it felt more like summertime down in Florida. I heard in the summertime its blazing hot down there. I don’t think I could take the heat and humidity in Florida during the summer; this is why I now feel differently about moving there. I am not going to move out of Colorado anytime soon because I love the Mountains! Even though I don’t ski or snowboard.~Ally Kassian I felt strong about same sex marriage. I viewed it as something that should not happen. If god wanted same sex marriage he would have made it Adam and Steve not Adam and Eve. Now my opinion has changed on that topic completely. It changed because i dated this girl, and her sister is currently engaged to another female. The girl i dated or currently dating is Paige, her sister is Brittany and her sister's fiance is Kelsey. Brit and Kels are perfectly happy together. Now because of Brit and kels I view same sex marriage very differently. I view it as if your happier with someone from the same sex then someone from the opposite sex, then thats great and go for it.
College Soccer
It was early fall, I steped out into the warm East Coast air. It was my team's first showcase for college. We were incredibly excited and nervous at the same time. We knew we had top schools coming to watch us. Game time was approaching, we saw the side lines croweded with schools; Miami, Cornell, Brown, Tenesessee, Navy, Maryland....and the list went on. Ever since that point, I had this idea that Division I schools were the only schools I would go to. I had this idea that a college was only good if it was well known and big. I was recruited by all different divisoins for schools, but would never pay attention to the lower divisions, I never thought they were good enough. However, about a year later it was high school season. Metro State came to watch one of our games. I had never considered looking at Metro. The coach was very impressed with me, and she kept attending more of my games. I always shoved the idea of going to Metro in the back of my mind, but one day I had this feeling to just see what it was like. I had always thought it was one of those schools that anyone could get into and bad students would attend there. I found out that it has a top education program, which is my major, the soccer team has won five national championships in Division II soccer. I went on a visit of the campus and loved it. After experiencing all of that, I was more open to looking at lower division schools, however I did committ to Metro. However, through the whole recruting process I went through my opinion had changed on lower division schools, I discovered some of the best schools are lower divisions and not gigantic schools. In the end, I knew I was stereotyping schools when I knew nothing about them. Now I know there are many great schools out there. --Carly Nelson
A Safe Community
When I was eight-years-old, I used to think of a community being a safe, friendly place. I grew up in Westminster and for the most part, it was very friendly. Many of my neighbors would stop to say, “hi, how’s it going?” and I knew them very well. Well enough to remember their first and last names. I would walk all alone over to a neighbor’s house just to do mischievous activities. Halloween was when I saw my neighbors the most. This was the most lively and energetic time for the younger generation. Children filled the streets laughing and horsing around. I remember Breanna was always the dazzling princess, Kaila was the fierce super-heroine as she would call it, Jessica was the witch—both in real life and in costume—and I was always the pumpkin or ghost, whichever was the easiest to sew. I am almost seventeen now and the friendliness of a community has seemed to be replaced with fear and paranoia. I don’t remember my new neighbor’s names and I am pretty sure they don’t remember mine. Halloween is somewhat depressing now. My last Halloween I decided to go trick-or-treating just for the fun of it and what I saw was no fun at all. Instead of the bubbly children scurrying about, only a few nervous looking ones were lurking around. All the while, their mothers were following an inch behind them in their cars. All of the fun seemed to be taken out by the fear. Many tragic things have led to this fear like 911 and the Columbine and Deer Creek shootings and as I re-evaluate my community, so much has changed since I was eight. There is no more trust and I can never be completely safe. I know now that there are so many dangers and anything can happen, but I would still like to have that fun and trust back. -- Kristie Han
Divorce
Growing up it's normal for a kid to have two parents around all the time, parents who live to protect their kids and do anything to make them happy. For me it was the complete opposite, my parents divorced when I was five years old and at the time I didn't understand why they were breaking up our family and causing me so much pain. I was angry for so long and felt completely alone because none of my friends were going through the separation of their parents. I was constantly being shuffled between two houses and there was no longer any happiness coming from my parents. The fighting exploded for a while and I was exposed to the rage more than a little girl should be. My brother was the only person that I could run to when my parents fought, but even he couldn't take away the empty feeling that I felt every time I realized that my dad wasn't around anymore. I was only allowed to see him every other weekend and even though he had fun activities for us to do together it wasn't the same because my mom wasn't there to experience it with us. As I've grown up I've come to understand why my parents divorced; they wanted us to be raised in the best possible environment, and that just happened to be within two different households. I came to realize that my parents weren't happy together and the fighting was to much for either of them to bear. I used to strongly believe that getting a divorce is just the easy way out of a difficult time, but now I see that sometimes it can strengthen a family and actually create a healthier environment for the kids. -Taylor Rogers
All my life up till tenth grade I have loathed school. It was never the highlight of my day and I just never cared for it. There was always loads of homework every night and the work load at school was extreme as well. Once I grew up more and survived up till tenth grade I started really enjoying it. I was given an easy schedule with an off hour and fantastic classes, I was allowed to see my friends after every class, and even got to leave for lunch. Along with all these amazing privileges came something else, much greater than any of these I began to realize that I really did care about school. It became more than just a good time and fun with my friends everyday. The value and price of education hit me, I began to realize how much I was completely wasting my time and missing out on a great opportunity all these years. K-12 is for the most part free education and everyone should be taking advantage of that no matter who you are. Colleges cost thousands of dollars and not everyone has money for that, and if you're not caring and paying attention k-12 and you can't afford college, then what education are you left with? In school now I pay attention as much as I can and try to study like a mad man so that I can do my best. I have realized that I need to take advantage of the opportunity given to me and learn as much as possible while it's free. When I was younger I hated school so much and everyday was a bummer, but now that I have realized that it is actually an amazing thing gifted to everyone for a very small price I try and take advantage of it as much as possible. Now I really like school and waking up at crazy hours of the morning to go learn. -Kaitlyn Bradford
Mothers touchYou’re supposed to love your mom. My whole life I despised mine. She would put me and my siblings in danger, and make us go through horrific things. She would bring home the most perverted men on the planet. She would get high in the kitchen with them on a daily basis. She made it to where I believed that school was the sheltered place for me in Elementary School. She made it to where I do not have credence to anyone. She made it were I have anxiety attacks on the regular. She made it so I moved to Denver. Since I can say I love her, for getting me out of the one place I called home. She may not have had those intentions but her decision to move me here changed my life. I would not be able to say I am graduating in May. I would still be in that life were school was your least priority. I thank my mom on a daily basis now. I never thought I would say this but my mom saved my life entirely. - Bella Kokos
I used to just say "whatever" to smoking but now with a personal experience I feel that smoking is a bad habit that should be taken care of. Five or six years ago my uncle passed away from cancer. Even though my uncle never smoke he was around people who smoked all the time he was told that he had lung cancer three years prior. Since having to go through this tragedy I have now changed my opinion and do believe that people shouldn’t smoke. There are many people that do die from things like smoking and it is hard to prevent it but there are ways. Going through things like this are hard and I do think that experiencing things like this helps you see that smoking, drinking, etc. are really harmful sometimes but there is nothing you can really do from stopping what has happened already.
Moving out of CO
My feeling of move out of Colorado has changed since I was a freshman. I use to have a strong desire to move out of Colorado. I was born here and lived here my whole life. I have never really gone snowboarding or skiing up in the mountains because I hate the snow, it snows a lot here in Colorado. Snow makes everything wet and cold a feeling I dislike. I wanted to move somewhere warm like Florida or California. I have visited Florida many times and loved it. My family always traveled down to Florida in the winter time but never during the summer. When it is bitter cold here in Colorado it felt more like summertime down in Florida. I heard in the summertime its blazing hot down there. I don’t think I could take the heat and humidity in Florida during the summer; this is why I now feel differently about moving there. I am not going to move out of Colorado anytime soon because I love the Mountains! Even though I don’t ski or snowboard.~Ally Kassian I felt strong about same sex marriage. I viewed it as something that should not happen. If god wanted same sex marriage he would have made it Adam and Steve not Adam and Eve. Now my opinion has changed on that topic completely. It changed because i dated this girl, and her sister is currently engaged to another female. The girl i dated or currently dating is Paige, her sister is Brittany and her sister's fiance is Kelsey. Brit and Kels are perfectly happy together. Now because of Brit and kels I view same sex marriage very differently. I view it as if your happier with someone from the same sex then someone from the opposite sex, then thats great and go for it.
College Soccer
It was early fall, I steped out into the warm East Coast air. It was my team's first showcase for college. We were incredibly excited and nervous at the same time. We knew we had top schools coming to watch us. Game time was approaching, we saw the side lines croweded with schools; Miami, Cornell, Brown, Tenesessee, Navy, Maryland....and the list went on. Ever since that point, I had this idea that Division I schools were the only schools I would go to. I had this idea that a college was only good if it was well known and big. I was recruited by all different divisoins for schools, but would never pay attention to the lower divisions, I never thought they were good enough. However, about a year later it was high school season. Metro State came to watch one of our games. I had never considered looking at Metro. The coach was very impressed with me, and she kept attending more of my games. I always shoved the idea of going to Metro in the back of my mind, but one day I had this feeling to just see what it was like. I had always thought it was one of those schools that anyone could get into and bad students would attend there. I found out that it has a top education program, which is my major, the soccer team has won five national championships in Division II soccer. I went on a visit of the campus and loved it. After experiencing all of that, I was more open to looking at lower division schools, however I did committ to Metro. However, through the whole recruting process I went through my opinion had changed on lower division schools, I discovered some of the best schools are lower divisions and not gigantic schools. In the end, I knew I was stereotyping schools when I knew nothing about them. Now I know there are many great schools out there. --Carly Nelson
A Safe Community
When I was eight-years-old, I used to think of a community being a safe, friendly place. I grew up in Westminster and for the most part, it was very friendly. Many of my neighbors would stop to say, “hi, how’s it going?” and I knew them very well. Well enough to remember their first and last names. I would walk all alone over to a neighbor’s house just to do mischievous activities. Halloween was when I saw my neighbors the most. This was the most lively and energetic time for the younger generation. Children filled the streets laughing and horsing around. I remember Breanna was always the dazzling princess, Kaila was the fierce super-heroine as she would call it, Jessica was the witch—both in real life and in costume—and I was always the pumpkin or ghost, whichever was the easiest to sew. I am almost seventeen now and the friendliness of a community has seemed to be replaced with fear and paranoia. I don’t remember my new neighbor’s names and I am pretty sure they don’t remember mine. Halloween is somewhat depressing now. My last Halloween I decided to go trick-or-treating just for the fun of it and what I saw was no fun at all. Instead of the bubbly children scurrying about, only a few nervous looking ones were lurking around. All the while, their mothers were following an inch behind them in their cars. All of the fun seemed to be taken out by the fear. Many tragic things have led to this fear like 911 and the Columbine and Deer Creek shootings and as I re-evaluate my community, so much has changed since I was eight. There is no more trust and I can never be completely safe. I know now that there are so many dangers and anything can happen, but I would still like to have that fun and trust back. -- Kristie Han
Divorce
Growing up it's normal for a kid to have two parents around all the time, parents who live to protect their kids and do anything to make them happy. For me it was the complete opposite, my parents divorced when I was five years old and at the time I didn't understand why they were breaking up our family and causing me so much pain. I was angry for so long and felt completely alone because none of my friends were going through the separation of their parents. I was constantly being shuffled between two houses and there was no longer any happiness coming from my parents. The fighting exploded for a while and I was exposed to the rage more than a little girl should be. My brother was the only person that I could run to when my parents fought, but even he couldn't take away the empty feeling that I felt every time I realized that my dad wasn't around anymore. I was only allowed to see him every other weekend and even though he had fun activities for us to do together it wasn't the same because my mom wasn't there to experience it with us. As I've grown up I've come to understand why my parents divorced; they wanted us to be raised in the best possible environment, and that just happened to be within two different households. I came to realize that my parents weren't happy together and the fighting was to much for either of them to bear. I used to strongly believe that getting a divorce is just the easy way out of a difficult time, but now I see that sometimes it can strengthen a family and actually create a healthier environment for the kids. -Taylor Rogers
All my life up till tenth grade I have loathed school. It was never the highlight of my day and I just never cared for it. There was always loads of homework every night and the work load at school was extreme as well. Once I grew up more and survived up till tenth grade I started really enjoying it. I was given an easy schedule with an off hour and fantastic classes, I was allowed to see my friends after every class, and even got to leave for lunch. Along with all these amazing privileges came something else, much greater than any of these I began to realize that I really did care about school. It became more than just a good time and fun with my friends everyday. The value and price of education hit me, I began to realize how much I was completely wasting my time and missing out on a great opportunity all these years. K-12 is for the most part free education and everyone should be taking advantage of that no matter who you are. Colleges cost thousands of dollars and not everyone has money for that, and if you're not caring and paying attention k-12 and you can't afford college, then what education are you left with? In school now I pay attention as much as I can and try to study like a mad man so that I can do my best. I have realized that I need to take advantage of the opportunity given to me and learn as much as possible while it's free. When I was younger I hated school so much and everyday was a bummer, but now that I have realized that it is actually an amazing thing gifted to everyone for a very small price I try and take advantage of it as much as possible. Now I really like school and waking up at crazy hours of the morning to go learn. -Kaitlyn Bradford